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Brandon Hagel takes subtle shot at USA with ‘group chats’ take before final

Originally posted on NHL on ClutchPoints
By Christopher Hennessy | Last updated Feb 18, 2025 8:48 PM ET

The 4 Nations Face-Off title game between Team USA and Team Canada is on Thursday night. After a historic round-robin game on Saturday night, the temperature has been turned up even more. Matthew Tkachuk, Brady Tkachuk, and JT Miller started the game with three fights based on a conversation in a group chat. Brandon Hagel, who fought Matthew Tkachuk, spoke about the fights and what to expect in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game.

“I think we’re out there playing for the flag, not the cameras,” Hagel told Sportsnet’s Eric Engels. “That’s a part of Canada that we have in there. We don’t need to initiate anything. We don’t have any group chats going on. We’re going out there playing our game and then giving it everything and doing it for our country. We don’t need to initiate everything. We’re just going to play as hard as we can and do it for the flag on the chest.”

There are multiple digs at Team USA and Matthew Tkachuk in this quote from Hagel. He notes that his squad does not need a group chat to initiate fights in the 4 Nations Face-Off. And he talks about playing for the flag, a trend in this tournament that will carry over into Thursday.

Political discourse meets hockey at the 4 Nations Face-Off

Team United States forward Matthew Tkachuk (19) and Team Canada forward brandon Hagel (38) fight in the first period during a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at the Bell Centre Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

The American National Anthem has been getting booed at Canadian sporting events since Donald Trump was inaugurated in January. His threats to implement massive tariffs on Canadian goods and to annex the country have not gone over well up north. So when Team USA took the ice for the 4 Nations Face-Off, the anthem booing took center stage.

Team USA’s first game in the 4 Nations Face-Off was against Team Finland, and the anthem was booed by the Montreal crowd. After that game, Matthew Tkachuk said he “didn’t like” hearing the anthem booed. And then the group chat kicked off, and then the gloves came off. It is easy to draw a line from anthem booing to three fights, but that may not be the reality.

When Hagel says Team Canada is playing for the flag and not the cameras, he is trying to get a reaction out of the American players. While they are undoubtedly playing for their flag as well, they fought because the fans were going to react to it. No matter which side you’re on, USA vs Canada should be great theater on Thursday night.

This article first appeared on NHL on ClutchPoints and was syndicated with permission.

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